Man shares up despite profits fall

Man Group posted a 40pc drop in annual pre-tax profits but still managed to
conciliate investors with an unexpected rise in assets under management.

The world's biggest listed hedge fund group reported pre-tax profits of $324m (£199m) down from $541m last year, but shares in the FTSE 100 company rose 5.9 to 245p as assets grew to $71bn having stood at $39.4bn at the end of its last financial year.

Man Group

AHL again proved a drag on overall performance as the $23bn trend-driven flagship fund was rocked by volatility caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and the Arab Spring.

Investors had been expecting worse. AHL was hit hard during the financial crisis and is still down around 12pc from its high-water mark, the performance level to which it needs to return before charging fees again.

However, investors were cheered by Man's efforts to diversify its reliance on performance away from AHL. The company said it's Japanese version of the AHL fund had already raised $2bn.